Spanking, Hitting Kids in Public Surprisingly Common, Study Finds

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Parents get physical with unruly children far more in public than
they do when they know psychologists or other researchers are
looking, a new study finds.

In an experiment that involved surreptitiously watching parents
discipline
their kids in public places such as restaurants, researchers
found that in 23 percent of cases, mom or dad resorted to
"negative touch" to get their child to comply. Negative touch can
include anything from restraining and spanking to pinching and
hitting.

The findings suggest that most social science research in
parenting misses out on these sorts of incidents, study
researcher Kathy Stansbury, a professor of human development and
family studies at Michigan State University, said in a statement.

"I have also seen hundreds of kids and their parents in a lab
setting, and never once witnessed any of this behavior,"
Stansbury said.

Spanking debate

There is plenty of controversy in parenting circles about whether
physical discipline, especially spanking, is ever okay. Stansbury
and her colleagues didn't delve into that debate, which mostly
focuses on the long-term
effects of spanking. Instead, they were interested in the
immediate effects of touch in discipline.

Previous studies have found that positive touch, such as tickles,
hugs, pats and gentle guidance are associated with happy outcomes
(and good behavior) in young children. Negative touch, including
spanking and hitting, has been linked to
more aggression in some kids.

But people aren't always willing to admit they've spanked or
otherwise been physically rough with their child. So Stansbury
and her colleagues set themselves up in restaurants, shopping
malls, parks and other public spots to watch parents and kids
ages 3 to 5 interact naturally. The study subjects never knew
they were being observed.

The researchers watched 106 public caregiver-child interactions
that involved a child refusing to comply with a request and the
caregiver having to correct the child. In most cases, the
caregivers appeared to be the child's
parents, but because the researchers never approached the
families, they can't be sure.

Discipline methods

Of the 106 episodes, 24 (or 23 percent) involved negative touch,
while another 35 (or 33 percent) involved positive touch.
Finally, in 38 percent of cases, the caregiver did not touch the
child at all.

Male caregivers used touch equally for both boys and girls, but
female caregivers were more likely to use negative touch with
boys and positive touch with girls. Contrary to stereotypes of
harsh disciplinarian fathers, when male caregivers did correct
their children by touch, it was more likely to be positive rather
than negative.

Negative touch was associated with a negative reaction from
female children, and researchers saw no evidence that negative
touch was more likely to get a child to obey than other methods.
When kids were happier, they found, they were more likely to
comply. And negative touch did not make kids happier. [ 10
Scientific Tips for Raising Happy Kids ]

"If your child is upset and not minding you and you want to
discipline them, I would use a positive, gentle touch," Stansbury
said. "Our data found that negative touch didn't work."

The researchers detailed their findings in the journal Behavior
and Social Issues.